Grade 9 applicant. So turned off by admissions at GDS and Potomac we didn’t apply! Good experiences at Maret and SFS and accepted at both. Likely Potomac and GDS not interested in our kid and it showed.

Anonymous wrote:Gds open house was lovely everything else about the process was off putting. I know perfectly lovely families who attend but it is not the school for us. Child felt the same afterwards.

+2 The impression is hard to describe exactly. There was this aura of smug superiority or arrogance that surrounded all our interactions with GDS. We didn’t get this vibe from any other school. DC had a very negative reaction to GDS. It might have been different if the interactions were in person rather than online, but who knows?

Loved the Arts Open House at Potomac and was impressed with the communication throughout the process.

Good experiences with:

Sidwell
Maret
GDS
Holton Bullis
Barrie
Field

Bad experiences:

NCS - super snobbish
Potomac (what you don't live in VA)?
Burke (does your kid have a LD)? No.

As a GDS parent, I am so frustrated by the feedback I hear year after year about the admissions department. They are not organized and in some cases not even friendly to prospective families. I hear this all the time from friends applying across the different grades. In particular, the head of admisssions for the HS has been there forever and seems burned out.

There is an arrogance to it that makes me furious. It seems GDS's attitude is like - take us or leave us - we have a million applicants.

My kids love GDS and are getting a great education but I do not want ANY potential family with a great kid turned pff by the process!!

We should be marketing to every family and cultivating every potential applicant. Russell please listen to this feedback and make some changes!

Anonymous wrote:One of my DC's classmate's family had an unprofessional experience with admissions at Flint Hill. The admissions department acted as if they were just a number. They were so disorganized that the admissions person forgot about their scheduled interview. Their child attends a highly regarded private school and is an athlete and an excellent student. The child was accepted to every school they applied to: FH, Potomac, and GDS. They had originally thought their DC would attend FH, but after such an unimpressive showing by the admissions department at FH, their child is going to attend GDS.

We experienced almost the exact same thing with our DS. He was applying for 9th grade for this coming school year. The admissions officer forgot the interview. He had no regard for my wife and my schedules, or that my son was taken out of school for nothing. My son was crushed. He had prepared for the interview and was excited to go through the process. The other three school's my DS interviewed at were absolutely welcoming. We did reschedule with FH, but it left a shocking impression. My son was accepted to 4 or the 5 schools at which he applied. FH accepted him, but he realized that if a school could treat applicants with such disregard, he knew the school culture wouldn't be a good one. I have never written a post on DCUM before, but I felt this needed to be shared.

Anonymous wrote:My poor daughter had a horrible admissions experience. The school was fine, the kids were fine, but the admissions officer in the interview kept directing the conversation back to my daughter's social life (?) Asking her how many friends she has, how long she has had those friends, if she has trouble maintaining friendships. Where the school got the idea that my daughter had social problems, I don't know, but even if they thought that, why put a 14 year old on the spot like that? Why not ask me? Or her teachers? Good riddance.

Maybe there are social issues at the school and one bad apple can ruin the bunch. They want confirmation that she's normal and has and can maintain friendships. Coming off of the heels of a two year stint at a tiny private middle school that we are now leaving because of issues, I think this is important.

What about admissions events? Did they make or break anyone's decision?

We had a wonderful experience with the Admission office at The Primary Day School. We were able to have an in-person tour of the school on a Saturday. Admission was warm and friendly had great follow - up during the process. We will be seding our DD in the fall.

Anonymous wrote:My poor daughter had a horrible admissions experience. The school was fine, the kids were fine, but the admissions officer in the interview kept directing the conversation back to my daughter's social life (?) Asking her how many friends she has, how long she has had those friends, if she has trouble maintaining friendships. Where the school got the idea that my daughter had social problems, I don't know, but even if they thought that, why put a 14 year old on the spot like that? Why not ask me? Or her teachers? Good riddance.

Weird. Sounds more like the school has some complicated social dynamics and they may be trying to weed out certain types of kids. Or maybe it’s their odd way of trying to “connect” with the student on a personal level?

It was outside the immediate DC area.

Anonymous wrote:My poor daughter had a horrible admissions experience. The school was fine, the kids were fine, but the admissions officer in the interview kept directing the conversation back to my daughter's social life (?) Asking her how many friends she has, how long she has had those friends, if she has trouble maintaining friendships. Where the school got the idea that my daughter had social problems, I don't know, but even if they thought that, why put a 14 year old on the spot like that? Why not ask me? Or her teachers? Good riddance.

Which school?

My poor daughter had a horrible admissions experience. The school was fine, the kids were fine, but the admissions officer in the interview kept directing the conversation back to my daughter's social life (?) Asking her how many friends she has, how long she has had those friends, if she has trouble maintaining friendships. Where the school got the idea that my daughter had social problems, I don't know, but even if they thought that, why put a 14 year old on the spot like that? Why not ask me? Or her teachers? Good riddance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:great experience with Potomac and Sidwell

DS loved Potomac and the admissions interviewer, but they didn’t love him - WL

I wouldn't go that far to say they didn't love him. And they do reject so WL is a positive sign. It truly is a numbers game and there was record applications and incredible amount of sibling/legacy admits. The admit spots were as difficult as they've ever been

Lovely experiences with Grace, Green Acres, SSFS, and Lowell.